MINNESOTA STATE HIGH SCHOOL COACHES ASSOCIATION, INC.
The spring delegate assembly of the Minnesota State High School Coaches
Association was called to order by President Gregg Martig
of St. Cloud Tech. The meeting was
called to order at 9:00 a.m.. Gregg welcomed all present and thanked those
in attendance for taking the time from their busy schedule to attend.
Roll Call was taken by Don Tangen and Shelly Hotzler. Absent:
Alpine Skiing, Athletic Directors, Girls Basketball, G/B Lacrosse, Hockey,
Track and Field. All A and AA sections
had at least one delegate in attendance,.
Presidential Welcome/Message: It
is an exciting time as the association continues to grow. There are a number of things that are
happening and there are number of things that we need to address. Schools are in financial trouble and there
will be challenges to all of the sports as we know them.
Dave Stead - MSHSL Executive Director.
Dave addressed some of the issues that we have been given.
Soccer: When can soccer try out
for club teams.
Tryouts can be held at times other than during the soccer school
season.
Summer Coaching:
There has not been anything brought forward. There have been a few possible changes
discussed but at this time no proposal has come Forward.
Equipment that kids can receive from companies. There is a limit of $100 or less. If companies want to give your school
equipment there is no limit. Anything
that goes directly to the schools is not limited.
Conference placement. As schools cut sport programs conferences are
being impacted. As schools drop sports
are they kicked out of the conference because they do not fill all the sports. The MSHSL is directed to place schools in a
conference if they have no conference.
We are going to look at school size, particularly in the metro area, and
help areas put together conferences.
Three class administrative structure: We have looked at this as way to have schools
stay in their administrative regions.
This hasn’t been brought forward into any formal proposed change.
Weight classes has been brought up as
needing a change. There is concern that
our catastrophic injury happened we may not be covered. It will be an April 1st agenda
item of the MSHSL Board.
Only two amendments have been advanced to the rep assembly. The Volleyball proposals on games and the
Lacrosse season length.
The League has surveyed students as to why they participate in
sports. Fun is the most often the
answer. They also asked what is the biggest thing you learn and the answer most often
given is time management.
The League is being asked to put together something regarding what the
importance of sports is for schools to use in addressing referendums.
The league is looking at asking the legislature to look at allowing
school districts to levy for the athletic budget much like the health and
safety leave.
Dave addressed questions that the league has been asked in terms of
things school want the league to do for them.
He reviewed all of the roster requirements with the league. Dave referred to the mercy rule being
proposed for football and basketball.
Dave was asked to speak on the Foundation of the MSHSL. Money in the Foundation comes from the sales
tax on tickets for tournaments. The bill
was passed as part of the Twins stadium bill.
Dave talked about the process that is used to distribute the monies back
to the schools.
Becky Leuer/John Schumacher: BOD voted that if you seed your tournaments
you will seed the top four. We are
looking at eliminating state participation plaques and instead it will be indicated
on your section championship plaques.
Becky talked about the need to follow the rules.
Constitution review and passage:
Gregg Martig - Becky Leuer. Becky and Gregg reviewed the changes made in
the constitution .
Motion by Tim Johnson Mankato East to accept
changes. Second by Jim Baker. Passed unanimously on a voice vote
John Erickson Executive Director Report:
Membership. The
current membership has now surpassed the 8,000 total. This was expected with the addition of the girls sports of volleyball, softball, gymnastics and synchronized
swimming. Erickson reported that
wrestling has voted to affiliate with the MSHSCA beginning with the 2008-09
membership year.
Finance Committee: Tom Van Erp: Tom reviewed
the 2007 fiscal report: There was a
motion by John Schumacker and a second b y
Dave Hylla to
approve the 2007 financial report: The
motion passed unanimously by voice vote.
Tom reviewed the current fiscal report:
there was a motion by Dave Hylla and a second by
Wendy Rooney to approve the report. The
motion to approve was passed unanimously by voice vote.
Tom introduced the mileage payback proposal for the delegates and sport
association officers. Motion by Donna Johansen and second
by Becky Leuer to approve the amount. The new mileage payment schedule was passed
unanimously by voice vote.
Academic Awards Program. Sport Associations shared what it is they
do. Soccer and football had different
approaches to the award. Football is
currently giving gold standard to the top 8 schools and silver for the next
twelve. Football uses their entire
roster to determine GPA. Due to this
process football wants to set their own standards for determining gold and
silver standards. Soccer used the gold
standard of 3.75 and silver standard of 3.50 for the purpose of awarding
plaques. Soccer did say that there are
still conflicts.
There was considerable discussion regarding the standards and how they
are set. Motion by
Dave Hylla that each sport association would
recognize a gold silver standard as determined by that sport association. Becky Leuer
second. The motion was amended by Rick Ringeisen to read that upon earning a
gold or silver standard in any sport one plaque would be presented to
the school with 24 tabs to be used by all sports. Glenn Haselberg
pointed out that this could be a very expensive undertaking as the bigger
schools could fill at least one a year.
Dave Johnson seconded the motion.
Tim Johnson called the question.
Motion and amendment passed
Pat Maliki - Soccer addressed the assembly
regarding tryouts for club teams taking place during the high school
season. The Soccer Coaches Association
is asking that the assembly help in blocking the ability of clubs to try
players out for teams on the AAU level.
There was considerable discussion regarding Bylaw: 411.10 making an
exception for soccer to try out up to Labor day for
club soccer.
Soccer is a just trying to close the loophole for summer by redefining summer. The motion by Pat Maliki
and second by Rick Ringeisen to change the summer
season as follows: bylaw 411: Summer: Summer shall be the period from the
Saturday following the 4th Friday in May through the Sunday before
the official start up date of High school sports. This is not intended to replace the summer
waiver. This will affect non league
sponsored activity. Erickson will work
with the Soccer coaches association in articulating their concern to the MSHSL.
Jim Baker Hall of Fame: Jim asked
sport associations to nominate the hall of fame candidates and to get the coach
of the year information to Jim by July 1.
Jim asked that delegates help secure help in sponsoring the
banquets.
John Schumacher, chairman of the distinguished service award for
officials, asked sport associations to nominate deserving officials for
consideration of the distinguished service award. John stated that we have had only on
nomination in the past year and the pool of nominees is very small.
Gregg Martig reported that there were about 200
scholarship applications so far and expects many more in the next few weeks
before the deadline. Gregg reviewed the
process and reminded delegates that the applications must be properly prepared
or they would be discarded. Applicants
must include all the information requested.
Delegate Reports/concerns.
Softball wants the week back.
They did a survey about fencing and found that there are a number of
unfenced softball fields. This is not
true in baseball. Baseball did not have
their request a week moved forward. The
issues were questions about rules being followed and not wanting to share gym
time etc. There was
also comments made in the Region Committees that we needed to keep the
separation of seasons between winter and spring activities.
Motion to adjourn by Dennis Holsman and Second Time Ryan
to adjourn . Motion passed and meeting
adjourned at 12:05 p.m.
Respectfully submitted
John Erickson, Executive Director
MSHSCA